Title: E'er
Disclaimers: I don't own any pirate/ship and I don't wish to.
Genre: hurt/comfort

Rating: maybe C16?
Summary/Set: post AWE. How will Elisabeth keep herself from feeling for Jack when Mr. Gibbs leaves him in her care seriously injured?

Pairing: Sparrabeth

Note: I felt a strong pull towards writing a Jackfic, but I don't know much about the pirate universe, in fact hardly anything, I haven't even seen all the scenes of the three films, so please excuse my mistakes and point them out to me at the same time so I can improve.

Also, English is still not my first language and it will never be.

"Mrs. Turner!" Pugh, the young first officer burst into his captain's cabin, "wake up! We ran into some difficulties errr...almost! Given they hardly use any lighting at night!" He shook his head, "you can barely see her approaching!"

"What? Run into what?" Elisabeth put her coat on, always ready to react to anything they came across the seas, like a true pirate now.

"The Black Pearl! There's a vessel coming over from her."

"Jack?" Her heart started beating faster at the name of Jack Sparrow's ship. Jack in a boat? He'd be more likely to use one of his ropes to jump over, especially if that close that they almost ran into each other.

"Under captain Barbossa's command, ma'am, according to the flag."

Captain Barbossa. In that case, where was Jack? Shipjacking involved again? She ran up the stairs quickly to find out what she was dealing with, "Mr. Gibbs!" She walked up to her old companion a bit surprised and unsure what to expect. Barbossa was never good news, even if only just a little bit more only, than Jack.

"Thank the Lord we found you," Mr. Gibbs started, raising a serious amount of alarm in Elisabeth.

"Heard of the Flying Dutchman?"

"Not for a long while, no. I brought Jack. I was hoping you could lend a hand. You know their ways, captain Barbossa and Jack. They drew swords for the ship this time. A wound in the gut, Lord, you're well-nigh sure to die," Mr. Gibbs said with compassion, almost crying, "but he pulled through, my good captain, so he did. When he wasn't in so much pain anymore we thought he would be taking us for the Guai Crystal and asking for his rum, but he's plainly too weak to do anything. We figure something's wrong. He needs to be taken to land to see a medical man, but I can not take him. They'd agnize we were pirates straight off. If not anything else, Jack himself would give us away. He despises doctors. Barbossa let me get him here. I have to go back, I can't take him any further, the state of the matter doesn't allow me to tell you what we're after..." He whispered, then stepped back, "take care of him for me please, Mrs. Turner. Captain Barbossa'll leave without me..." He apologized, climbing overboard.

"What should we do with the ailing soul?" Pugh addressed her, standing up from where he was squatting to reveal somebody lying on the ground.

Elisabeth stepped closer to be able to see in the darkness and strained her eyes to recognize Jack. The person in front of her, lying on her deck, just having been lifted in wasn't wearing a pirate hat, nor his usual purplish head band, his hair sticky. He looked nonconscious, was very thin and his skin was incredibly pale under some dirt. She slowly reached out to touch his cheek, half awaiting for those eyes to open, bearing into her soul once more. But they didn't and his skin felt rather cold. "Take him to my quarters!" She ordered, "sat sail to Port Cat's Paw, now! Frances!" She called the only other woman on board, "I'll need a bucket of water and some piece of cloth!" She followed her men carrying Jack down below, "on my bed! Go, leave us!"

Once she was alone with him, she touched his cheek again, slowly caressing it. No, she can't lose another man to a sword. She would've wanted to speak to him, to know he was at least able to open his eyes as Mr. Gibbs didn't say much about the shape Jack was in. She rubbed his jaw lightly, sighing. Where was Frances with the water? She was urging her in herself, although she knew she would only have the impression she was doing something if she washed him, but didn't really help him. Still, she had to try to do her best till they reached land. She looked down on his torso, momentarily closing her eyes before willing herself to lift up his shirt. However, she couldn't see anything, as there was a bandage around his waist. That too, unclean, it will need changed and then she'll maybe get an idea about his condition. She pulled her dagger and cut through the material at the side.

tbc